Award Winning Poet-Singer Antzu Stirs the Romantic Senses with Pop/Rock Anthem “Love is a Desert Rose”
Love is a Desert Rose - Antzu
1
0
Music is a dynamic realm made up of ingenuity, creativity and composition. Within that realm, groundbreaking, award-winning poet-singer Antzu has crafted an extensive catalog of music for almost a decade, which has propelled his success as a recording artist.
The Taiwanese-American talent has wowed music lovers ever since his emergence on the music scene with his debut album in 2016. Antzu’s eclectic fusion of poetry with contemporary styles consisting of elements of pop, rock, EDM, R&B and a variety of other influential genres, has been at the root of Antzu’s remarkable career; one which is also highly decorated as he has been the recipient of 10 American “Global Music Awards”.
Today, we’re highlighting an emotionally-charged song from Antzu’s most recent project. This latest standout track in Antzu’s repertoire is titled “Love is a Desert Rose” and it is one of 28 songs which comprise the stunning ‘In Dream‘ album.
“Love is a Desert Rose” is an 80’s Brit-style rock anthem with pop undertones that showcases his lyrical prowess. Using the metaphor of a “desert rose,” Antzu cleverly delves into the complexities of romance and life, creating a classic in the making.
The song’s dream-like, ethereal soundscape is accentuated with a potent splash of reverb and slight distortion that gives the song the presence of it being performed at a large stadium.
The atmospheric acoustics are further enhanced by a crashing percussion draped by a rhythmic guitar arrangement and dynamic vocal presentation by Antzu. His vocals possess a breathy, somewhat gravelly tone, which projects the emotional sentiment of the lyrics exceptionally well.
Antzu graciously provides more insight into the song as he shares the back story of its development:
“Love is a Desert Rose” is a Brit-style Rock song written 8 years ago. The song is semi biographical and is about my first romance. It hits too close to my heart that I didn’t feel ready to record it until two years ago.
This song contemplates the meanings of both romance and our journey in life. I blend contagious melody with poetic, philosophical lyrics to create this rock ballad.
I asked a good friend of mine to perform the layered, dream-like guitar arrangements. For this song, I also adopted haggard vocals to convey the strong, bittersweet emotions expressed in the song. I recorded the vocals many times to get the fervent yet forlorn emotions of the narrator.
The song came to me very naturally. The melody floated into my head and I just sang and recorded into my cell phone.
I listened to the song and I think I heard my own love story in it. It’s about balancing the rapture and pain in a romance and in life. I finished writing the lyrics in 10 minutes.
The lyrics, or the poem as I would call it, is central to this song’s realizationIn the chorus part, “love is thorn, love is a desert rose. Oh won’t you love me? You still love me?” It explores the complication of love, the joy and ache interwoven in a romance.
In the verse section, “you suffer so you gain happiness. You try so hard to kill that emptiness.”It’s an exploration of what everyone tries to find the dream or happiness in life but must sacrifice many parts of life to achieve that dream or that state called happiness.
I hope this song can bring joy and revelation to audiences.
“Love is a Desert Rose” is available on all streaming platforms and you can listen to this intriguing track via the Spotify link or YouTube visualizer below. Stream it! Playlist it! and save it to your Favorites for quick access. Also, remember to follow Antzu’s profile and check out the other works in his voluminous discography. Enjoy the works of this one-of-kind artist and visionary!
Scroll further below to read more about Antzu in the Bio section and read or sing along to the lyrics of “Love is a Desert Rose’ while you listen to the song.
Listen to “Love is a Desert Rose” by Antzu
Watch the Visualizer for “Love is a Desert Rose’
Antzu Bio
Five-Time “Global Music Awards” Winner
Mando-Pop’s Bob Dylan
Taiwan poet singer Antzu (a.k.a. Andrew Huang 黃安祖) won American “Global Music Awards” for the fifth year, setting a historical record for the most wins for Mando-pop artists at the awards. Dubbed by the media as “Troubadour Antzu” (吟唱詩人安祖), Huang has emerged as the premier poet singer from Greater China over the past decade.
He has won 10 Global Music Awards with 6 different albums thus far. Antzu is a five-time winner of American “Global Music Awards.” He won Bronze Medals for “In Quest of Love ” (【尋愛】) album. He won “Global Music Awards” Silver Medals for “Troubadour” (【吟唱詩人】) album and Bronze Medals for “Heaven and Earth” (【天上人間】) album simultaneously in fall, 2023. He won “Global Music Awards” Silver Medals for “Troubadour” album and Bronze Medals for “Those Who Don’t Believe in Love Have All Died” (【不相信愛情的都死掉了】) album simultaneously in mid 2023. He also won “Global Music Awards” Bronze Medal for “In Dream” double albums in late 2022 and for “Master Tribute Songs” (【大師致敬詩歌】)album in early 2022. He has also won the prestigious “Chinese Writers’ Association Art Awards” in Taiwan in 2021
Dubbed by the media as the “Mando-Pop’s Bob Dylan,” Antzu established himself as a trailblazer by merging modern poetry with contemporary English pop genre styles. As the first Mando-pop poet singer to crafts songs in contemporary English pop styles (such as EDM, rock, R&B, trip hop, and hip hop), Antzu makes a ground-breaking creative principle with poetry song by shifting from the folk songs in the 1970’s to the contemporary pop styles of the 2020’s.
“I grew up listening to English pop music.” Huang explains. His fondness for contemporary English pop styles endears his poetry songs to young, new generation of global audiences. “I’m not a folk poet singer. I enjoy creating songs with contemporary English pop styles to communicate with the young audiences.”
“I never imagined that I would win ‘Global Music Awards’ for five times in a row!” Huang says. “I’m flattered that my bilingual and bicultural songs can be appreciated by both the English and Chinese audience.”
Huang’s latest work “In Dream” released in 2022 features the first set of English-Chinese bilingual double albums in pop music history. The epic work contains 10 poetry songs with lyrics written, translated, and performed in two languages all done by Huang himself. As the first batch of bilingual poets to emerge from Taiwan, Huang is one of the first generation of bilingual poets to emerge from Taiwan.
“Love is a Desert Rose” Lyrics
- Poem/Melody/Performed by Antzu
- Arranged and Produced by John Guo
You run for the sun,
and roam into the desert.
You run for the sea,
and you kiss the river.
You suffer so you gain happiness.
You try so hard to kill that emptiness.
You run for the sun,
and get lost in the sea.
You said that love is a desert rose.
Oh won’t you love me? You still love me?
Love is a thorn, love a desert rose.
Oh won’t you love me? Is it how it should be?
You run for the sun,
and roam into the desert.
You run for the sea,
and you kiss the river.
You suffer so you gain happiness.
You try so hard to kill that emptiness.
You run for the sun,
and get lost in the sea.
You said that love is a desert rose.
Oh won’t you love me? You still love me?
Love is a thorn, love a desert rose.
Oh won’t you love me? Is it how it should be?
Ah ah ah ah ah wo wo wo wo
You suffer so you gain happiness.
You try so hard to kill the emptiness.
Ah ah.
You said that love is a desert rose.
Oh won’t you love me? You still love me?
Love is a thorn, love a desert rose.
My darling. Love is a desert rose.
Kevin James has over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry in various facets. He has worked as a recording artist, songwriter, producer, on-air radio personality, background actor and film director. Kevin is a Member of the National Writer's Union.